The Other Peggy
by Of Tea and a TARDIS
Summary: Life for the Avengers is continuing as normal- well, as normal as it ever gets, until Steve catches sight of a familiar face that shouldn't exist. Intrigued, he sets Coulson on it, but when Coulson goes missing, Steve and the others realise that there are bigger powers at play, and that SHEILD may not be as unique as they first thought...


**Disclaimer:** Don't own it. Wish I did, but I never will. Don't earn anything from it either.

**Chapter 1- The first sighting (Or Steve sees something he shouldn't)**

The first time that Steve saw her, it was just after they had defeated Jhxxzaphlax, Dark Lord of the Eternal Void, for the fourth time. (Dark Lords of the Eternal Void, it seems, just can't take a hint.)

Jhxxzaphlax, or 'Juggy' as Tony had taken to calling him, (a name that was not unrelated to his lordship's unusually large mammary glands) had materialised into the middle of a seven-year-old's birthday party in Iowa, demanded to meet in combat with the ruler of 'this heathen assembly', singled out Edith, the tiara-clad birthday girl, and challenged her to a duel for the kingship of the planet. Edith had promptly stabbed him through the foot with a fork.

By the time Steve and the other Avengers arrived, there wasn't that much left to do. Edith and her little cohort of cake-fuelled friends had made short work of Juggy, especially after they discovered that any contact with metal caused him to break out into a nasty rash, then seemingly evaporate. Juggy's 'Army of Darkness' had yet again failed to appear, despite his claims that it would soon come and 'emaciate' them, and all this, plus the lack of major architectural damage, was making Juggy a serious contender for the 'Worst Dark Lord Ever' spot in the Avengers hall of fame. (Which, at the moment, was just a shelf in Coulson's office.)

So, that is how Steve found himself sitting in a front garden in Iowa, having suddenly become one of the main attractions at a child's birthday party. Edith, far from being shocked and tearful, was thrilled with her party's unexpected disturbance, and was eagerly pronouncing this 'The bestest birthday in the history of forever!' while she beamed at everyone from her perch on Thor's lap.

'This is the bestest birthday in the history of forever!'

'Ah, small female midgardian youngling, if you could only see some of my natal revels, you would not be so awestruck- In my home, the beer flows in endless rivers, and the table groans under the weight of roasted Signen. Why, one time I ate seven whole boar in one sitting!'

'You talk funny.'

'My speech is not of your world, for I am Thor of Asgard, God of thunder!'

'You can't be a God.' Said Edith authoritatively 'You don't have a grey beard. Anyway, there is only one God. Everyone knows that.'

Steve's attention shifted from Thor's affronted splutters and violent dismissals of monotheism, and to the street on the other side of the fence. Surprisingly few people had noticed Juggy's attack (if you could call it that), and life was continuing as normal. Steve sighed. 'Normal' was something which had been sadly lacking from his life as of late. Not only had he been catapulted seventy odd years into the future, been betrayed by the organisation that had promised to protect him, and discovered that his dead best mate was alive and had been brainwashed and programmed to kill him, but the Avengers were also being used to pick up some of the slack created by the HYDRA fiasco. SHEILD may have been out of action while Fury purged and reorganised it, but the outside world certainly wasn't, and the constant stream of supernatural phenomena and supervillans continued. Unfortunately, the Avengers were considered 'untainted' and therefore had been given the work of several teams and offices which were not so pure. Steve had spent the last few months constantly fighting, negotiating and containing, and he was sick of it, as was everyone else. But he was Captain America; brave, strong, and seemingly tireless, and whining was not an option. He did what he was told, for the good of his country, and for the good of the people.

This was nice though, this brief respite. Steve watched as a young mother hurried past, shoving a pram in front of her, and dragging a squalling toddler in her wake. After her came an elderly couple, holding onto each other's arms for support, a jogger, dressed in some of the rather tight clothing that Steve still hadn't got quite used to yet, and a middle aged man, who Steve recognised as the mayor, accompanied by a young woman. Something about the girl caught Steve's eye, and he looked closer, them frowned. She was wearing a British army standard office suit- the kind _she_ used to wear. The girl's hair was dark and curled- just like _hers _used to be. This was just what Steve needed; a reminder of all he had lost. He was about to force himself to drag his eyes away, when the girl turned, and her face came into full view.

It was Peggy.

It didn't just look like her; it was her, with the curve of her lips, and the slope of her nose, and the shape of her eyes. Steve drew in a sharp breath and stared- properly this time, with an open mouth and wide eyes, not caring how stupid he looked (I can verify that he looked quite ridiculous) or how many people saw, because it was Peggy. It was Peggy, it was Peggy, it was Peggy, and she was staring back, and alarm was creeping across her features.

Peggy broke the stare and turned back to the mayor beside her, and began walking away, quicker this time, as if she was trying to escape. Steve stepped forward, preparing to follow her, to speak to her, to ask her where she'd been all this time, when a hand landed on his arm, and he spun around like a startled animal.

'Jesus Rodgers, it's just me.' Exclaimed Natasha. 'We need to go. Thor stirred up some trouble.' She cocked her head in the direction of said God, and Steve saw that he was engaged in a heated argument with Edith's mother, who by the sound of things, was not pleased with her daughter's introduction to the wonders of polytheism.

'You look like you saw a ghost.' Murmured Natasha. 'Rodgers, are you okay?'

She was frowning now; ever since the HYDRA nightmare, she'd been acting almost as if she was worried about Steve's wellbeing. It was nice, but got a little tedious at times.

'I'm-' Steve paused. 'I'm fine.' And he was, almost. The woman he saw couldn't possibly have been Peggy; Natasha had snapped him out of orbit and back to earth, and his logical brain was now back in control. It can't have been her. Peggy Carter was going senile in a nursing home back in New York. The more the thought about it, the more convinced Steve was that he was just overtired and seeing things. There weren't even any British military personnel in the whole of Iowa, let alone in this town, and if there were, the government would've realised by now. They might be sloppy when it came to noticing insidious terrorist organisations, but when it came to Homeland Security, they were pretty good.

Steve sighed, again, and turned to rescue Thor from the wrath of a housewife. He spared the street one last glance before he went to intervene, just to make sure. There was no one there. The street was empty. Peggy had gone.


End file.
